Planned power plant’s fire safety at issue

A silent debate over fire safety at the proposed Carlsbad power plant broke into the open when the California Energy Commission devoted about four hours to the issue last week during its four-day hearing.

Experts for NRG Energy, which has proposed a 540-megawatt power plant on its 95 acres west of Interstate 5 and north of Cannon Road, have said the new plant would contain the most advanced systems to control and suppress any fire.

NRG’s experts told the two commission members conducting the hearing that structures would consist of noncombustible concrete and steel. The plant would be fueled by natural gas, and valves would be installed strategically along the lines to cut the supply should a fire erupt, they said.

Frank Collins, one of NRG’s experts, said Thursday that the control measures are so advanced that “the Fire Department is a backup to fire-suppression systems on large fires.”

To Collins’ right as he uttered those words sat Carlsbad Fire Marshal Jim Weigand, Fire Chief Kevin Crawford and fire operations Chief Chris Heiser. Together they have about 100 years’ experience in public safety.

“In my experience, I’ve never been referred to as a backup entity,” Heiser responded dryly. “The safety systems they describe are an adjunct. The reality is they buy time (so) we can get in position. … They don’t make the bad things go away.”

The exchange exemplified the ongoing debate between NRG and the city of Carlsbad over the plant’s safety features.

NRG proposes to build twin gas-fired power plants on 23 acres between I-5 and the coastal railroad tracks, south of Agua Hedionda Lagoon. Three obsolete oil tanks would be demolished to make way for the plant.

The state Energy Commission has the authority to license new plants, and the city opposes this one on several grounds. The commission is expected to issue its preliminary recommendation on whether to license the plant in about two months.

The new plant would be sunk in a 30-foot-deep bowl between I-5 and the tracks, with an access road ringing the plant.

Carlsbad says the design doesn’t allow enough space for firefighters to enter promptly, set up their equipment and deploy crews to rescue people and control the fire.

Emergency vehicles would enter from Carlsbad Boulevard on the west, and once on the property would take two 90-degree turns, then go up a ramp over the tracks to reach the access road.

NRG has designed that road at 28 feet wide, but the city’s Fire Department says it should be 50 feet.

City fire officials call the space constrained, but NRG and Energy Commission consultants say they don’t see a problem.

“While this is a constrained space … it is no more tight than other power plants,” said Alvin Greenberg, the energy commission’s expert. He said California law requires only a 20-foot-wide road and cited various plants built near the ocean, railroad tracks or freeways where wider roads weren’t required.

He said, for example, that the Palomar Energy Center in Escondido is hemmed in, but the Escondido Fire Department never held that plant to the same stringent conditions Carlsbad wants of NRG’s proposal.

Heiser said he visited that plant to see it for himself.

“There are some similarities, but for the most part I didn’t see that area as a constrained space,” Heiser said, adding that the road is 50 feet wide in spots and that aprons provide space for fire crews to stage their efforts.

Heiser agreed that plants elsewhere in the state face such constraints as rail lines, freeways or a beach, but “what I see in the Carlsbad site is all those issues in one spot.”

John McKinsey, an NRG attorney, produced a city document showing that Carlsbad didn’t require Poseidon Resources, developer of the recently approved desalination plant, to build a road 50 feet wide, but wanted only a 42-foot turning radius. That plant will be built on NRG’s property.

McKinsey was implying that the city employed a double standard, going easy on the desalination plant because it wanted that project, whereas it opposes the power plant so it’s making the process more difficult.

Weigand, the fire marshal, defended the department’s switch to a wider road for the power plant, saying the state gives local chiefs the authority to request tougher conditions when they see a need. He said Poseidon will face more stringent standards when it submits building plans.

“There is always a potential for a life-safety event,” Weigand said. “We have to plan for a worst-case scenario.”